U.S. Election: The South Asian Factor

The states that helped Mr. Obama get re-elected included those with the biggest South Asian populations, such as New York, New Jersey, California and Pennsylvania. Shown, a voter in California, Nov. 6.

Considering that South Asian Americans overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama in the U.S. presidential election, were they instrumental in the win?

The states that helped Mr. Obama get re-elected included those with the biggest South Asian populations, such as New York, New Jersey, California and Pennsylvania.

But in the grand scheme, the impact of the South Asian vote wasn’t that great, says Sree Sreenivasan, chief digital officer at Columbia University and co-founder of the South Asian Journalists Association.

“Sure, some of the ‘get out the vote’ efforts, including some innovative YouTube and Facebook efforts led by Tim Dutta and others, would have helped get more South Asians to the polls, [but] the fact is that the overall numbers are still too low for the political system to take notice,” Mr. Sreenivasan said.

“It’s only now that the Hispanic community, which is an order of magnitude larger in size, history and impact, is getting its due, so South Asians will have to wait for some time,” he added.

Irrespective of its influence on the outcome of the election, the South Asian community is becoming more active and its influence on American politics is growing. Raj Goyle, former Kansas state representative, told The Wall Street Journal’s India Real Time that “the South Asian community continues to increase its political activity and last night [Nov. 6] was a great reminder of how far we have come.”

Among Asian Americans as a whole, only 41% identify as Democrats yet 72% voted for Mr. Obama, according to the Asian American Election Eve Poll, which also said less than half the 800 Asian Americans polled over the pre-election weekend had been asked by a campaign, political party or community organization to vote or register to vote.

“While Barack Obama’s narrative attracted Asian American voters, Mitt Romney missed an enormous opportunity to offer a direct appeal to this group,” Lisa Hasegawa, executive director of the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, said in a statement.

National CAPACD jointly ran the pre-election poll with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

For South Asians specifically, more needs to be done to get people out to vote, Mr. Sreenivasan noted.

“We have to make sure there are more efforts to convert permanent residents into citizens and citizens into registered voters who actually vote. No easy task considering some of the apathy we see in parts of the community,” he said.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Barack Obama during his victory speech in Chicago, Nov. 6.

How are South Asians going to benefit from four more years of President Obama? Theresa Thanjan, co-chairperson of South Asians for Obama, said the community will benefit from the president’s drives to fix the tax code, bring about comprehensive immigration reform, support small businesses, make education more accessible and fully implement the Affordable Care Act, which aims to reduce the costs of healthcare.

Ms. Thanjan’s organization SAFO cheered the election outcome. “Last night we achieved a great victory, electing Barack Obama – for a second time – to lead our nation as President! After a long and hard-fought struggle, we have prevailed and are poised to continue moving America FORWARD,” it said on its Facebook page.

Unsurprisingly, the divide that exists in mainstream America is also evident in the South Asian community. Rina Shah, the spokesperson for the Republican Indian Committee, said the organization would redouble its efforts and “serve as ambassadors for the conservative principles that so many across this great nation hold dear.”

“We will continue to hold policymakers accountable to our ideals, and will be relentless in our fight to keep the size of our government in check. Growing our economy, developing comprehensive immigration reform, and decreasing the tax burden on our families are just some of the tough tasks which lie ahead,” she added.

Indian-American author Thrity Umrigar believes that the reason Indian-Americans supported Obama is that they seem themselves in him.

“Although he is native-born, his is the classic aspirational story, which is the story of immigrants in America. And his biracial background gives him a hybridity, which is also appealing to immigrants, who well understand the feeling of being caught between two cultures,” she told India Real Time.

Mr. Obama alluded to this in his victory speech. “I believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. We’re not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America,” he said.

Visi R. Tilak is freelance writer with bylines in publications such as the Boston Globe, Indian Express, India Today and Tehelka. She can be reached via email visitilak@gmail.com, her website www.visitilak.com or on Twitter @vtilak.

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